Employment Rights Bill: introduced in 100 days
The Labour Government has delivered on its promise to introduce an Employment Rights Bill in Parliament within 100 days.
This is a vital first step in delivering Labour’s New Deal for Working People – the biggest uplift in workers’ rights for a generation.
After 14 years of the Tories overseeing falling wages and attacking unions, Labour’s Employment Rights Bill shows a sea change in approach: the first Fair Pay Agreement in Social Care, repealing the Tories’ vicious attacks on unions, including the 2016 Trade Union Act and the Strikes Act, reinstating collective bargaining structures for school support staff, enshrining the two-tier code in law, setting up the Fair Work Agency to enforce employment rights, ending the three day wait for sick pay, requiring employers to implement action plans to close the gender pay gap, and much more.
The principles the New Deal is built on – security at work, fair pay, stronger unions – have never been more important. Working people are crying out for a fairer deal at work. Polling shows that every constituency in the country has a majority in favour of strengthening workers’ rights.
That’s why this moment is so important – and why it’s just as vital that we stay the course and see the New Deal delivered in full.
The first reading of the Bill is just the start: we know it won’t be easy and the agenda will continue to come under attack. Bad bosses and special interests are working overtime to discredit and unpick the progress we’ve made – they’re determined to maintain the status quo and continue the race to the bottom.
As the Bill moves through the Parliamentary process and consultations get underway, there’s important work to do: ensuring there are no gaps or loopholes that bad employers might exploit, and getting the smallprint and fine details right.
Unions have a crucial role to play in helping shape the legislation so that it delivers the change that working people need.
The New Deal promised to put power back into the hands of working people – and today is a historic and exciting first step in delivering that change. Now let’s get to work, and see it through to completion.